Princess of Thieves

The end of last month saw Isabelle’s first epic adventure, an adventure that led her back to a time of outlaws, folk of the forest, a journey that led to her first visit to Robin Hood country!

We were back for my mum and dad’s birthday in Nottinghamshire, quite literally in the middle of Sherwood Forest, not that they live in the trees or anything you understand. My mum and dad had seen Isabelle when she was a few days old in the flesh and the rest of the time it had been through photos and on Skype so the changes, nuances, the smiles and the giggles were an obvious delight.

It was almost a like a mini-Pope’s visit – minus the police protection and bulletproof car naturally – with us visiting family who hadn’t yet had the pleasure of engaging in gurgles with Izzy.

I’m not quite sure what she made of it all though as almost everytime she closed her eyes and opened them again she was invariably some place new. You could also forgive her for thinking that she possessed special powers that allowed her transport herself to a new place merely by closing her eyes and opening them again (hopefully this won’t mean she’ll end up growing into Phoebe Buffet and think she can change TV channels by blinking).

One moment she was in Southend and then the next in Nottinghamshire, unfortunately it was less time travel and more tight travel for me. We all made the journey to Notts, including Missy, squeezed into the car due to baby paraphernalia which saw me having to be shoe horned out of the car the other end. In fact I was that tightly packed into the back that I could only communicate with Sarah, who was driving, with one blink for yes and two for no

A seminal but emotional moment at The Major Oak...it can have that effect

Away from birthday celebrations and house calls there was the inevitable trip out, or should that be pilgrimage of sorts, to Sherwood Forest and The Major Oak. There were some fantastically bright colours around it being Autumn and rather than stay sat in her buggy Izzy took in all the smells, noises and sights of these never before seen surroundings.

Izzy had stayed at her grandma and granddad’s in Southend but this was her first proper weekend away. At home she is still as snug as a bug in a rug in her Moses basket but we didn’t have room for that item so we had the use of a travel cot from Gavin and Shona. Compared to the basket it looked massive! As such she looked a little bit lost in it but the thing that took the most negotiation was that because it was so close to the floor it seemed several hundred feet lower that the levitated Moses basket which meant she had a longer journey to bed when she was asleep and were putting her to bed.

This reminded me of the scene from the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indiana Jones has to swap that bag of dirt for the golden idol, although to be fair we didn’t have any poison arrows firing at us or on unsuccessful attempts have a ruddy giant boulder chase us through my mum and dad’s house.

Sarah did quite a good faux Alfred Molina impression though, minus spiders all over her back, as I slowly lowered the bag of dirt, I mean Isabelle, to the bottom of the travel cot. Talking of spiders though Izzy also attended her first Halloween party at my brothers which saw her don a rather fetching spider-esque outfit that, rather fittingly, is sure to haunt her for many years to come.

Quite an action-packed longweekend then for one so young, no wonder she slept all the way back to Southend, seemingly in the blink of an eye. Wait a minute, Indiana Jones style adventures, Sherwood Forest and time travel hmmmm, almost sounds like an idea for a film. Nah!